What is the NIST AI RMF?

The NIST AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF) is a voluntary, flexible guidance framework developed by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to help organizations design, develop, deploy, and use AI responsibly. It provides a structured approach for managing the unique risks that arise across the AI lifecycle—supporting trustworthy, transparent, and accountable AI practices.

The AI RMF introduces a common language and process for identifying, assessing, and mitigating AI risks, regardless of an organization’s size, sector, or technology maturity. Its goal is to promote innovation while ensuring that AI systems operate in ways that protect individuals, uphold fairness, and align with ethical and societal expectations.

As AI becomes increasingly embedded in critical decisions and systems, the potential for unintended consequences—such as bias, privacy breaches, or misuse—also grows. The AI RMF helps organizations proactively manage these challenges by integrating risk management into every stage of AI system development and operation.

The AI RMF offers a strategic foundation for managing AI risks while fostering innovation—helping organizations turn responsible AI principles into measurable, actionable practices.

Key Requirements

While it is not a binding regulation, the AI RMF outlines a structured, lifecycle-oriented approach to AI risk management. Key elements include:

  • A set of core functions: Govern, Map, Measure, and Manage.

  • Emphasis on defining organizational governance, risk contexts, roles and accountability.

  • Identifying and assessing AI risks to people, organizations and ecosystems.

  • Continuous measurement of performance, impacts and risk mitigation effectiveness.

  • Managing residual risks, monitoring the system through its lifecycle, and iterating the risk management approach.

Because the AI RMF is voluntary, organizations adopt it to improve governance and trustworthiness of their AI systems, often aligning it with internal risk-management, compliance or governance frameworks.

How Darior Can Help

We support organizations in operationalising the NIST AI RMF by offering:

  • Readiness & Gap Assessment — Evaluate existing AI systems and processes against the AI RMF functions and identify priority risk-areas.

  • Governance & Policy Framework Design — Establish roles, accountability, oversight structures and documentation aligned with the Govern function of the RMF.

  • Implementation & Documentation Support — Translate Map-Measure-Manage core functions into processes, controls, metrics and evidence documentation.

  • Training & Awareness — Tailored training and workshops for leadership, technical and compliance teams on AI risk-management using the AI RMF.

  • Continuous Monitoring & Improvement — Build ongoing monitoring, metrics dashboards, governance reviews and improvement cycles that reflect the iterative nature of the RMF.

With our support, your organization can turn the NIST AI RMF from a guideline into an operational governance system—boosting your ability to build trustworthy AI and justify your approach to stakeholders.